7.04.2011

Wyatt, month 11

Dear Wyatt,

You are eleven months old!

Eleven months! That’s one month away from one year old, right?! No, it can’t be...can it? I’m an accountant by day (superhero mama by night...ha!), so I’m pretty sure my math is legit and all, but it just doesn’t seem possible. I recently read that one of the hardest parts about being a parent is that your baby starts to grow up as soon as he is born, and that is so true! My heart breaks a little every time I look at you and realize how fast you are growing up. I feel like I’m going to blink my eyes and you’ll be driving off to college, so forgive me if I get a little sappy and try to soak up every single second of our time together.

This month you became a big time cuddle bug! You’ve got some serious mommy attachment going on right now, so you are extra cuddly with me. I just love it when you’ve been playing on your own for a few minutes and you suddenly stop everything and crawl up to my lap for a hug and some reassurance. A few months ago you were all about Papa, but right now it’s The Mama Show and I’ll tell you a secret...I love it. :) Everything is a cycle with babies, and I know the pendulum will swing back to Papa soon enough so I’m soaking this up while it lasts.

Speaking of your attachment “issues”, you earned yourself a new nickname this month: Velcro Baby! In the evenings after a full day spent at school, especially, you really love being close to us. That makes it a challenge for me to get dinner started before your papa gets home from work, so it’s a good thing we don’t mind eating a late dinner! There are worse things in life than your baby wanting extra cuddle time, that’s for sure. And after being away from you all day long while we bring home the bacon, your papa and I miss you so much that we can’t think of anything we’d rather be doing than playing with and loving on your adorable self.

One of your favorite activities this month was blowing raspberries with your tongue out! It started with you doing it in the car on our way home in the evenings (I think you learned this trick from your friend Dora at school), and then I *may* have encouraged it a bit because I think it’s so darn cute. Cute, cute, cute!

In motor skills development news, you actually had a pretty busy eleventh month! You learned to clap (cutest thing ever), you learned to drink out of a straw, you started giving kisses (more like a big open mouth, slobbery, please-don’t-bite-me, “kiss” on the chin or jaw), you will blow kisses on occasion, you put rings on a peg and you’ve started to climb up and down small obstacles (your favorite “obstacles” being your parents).

You’ve also started to display an understanding of word association! We’ll say “Where’s Cooper?” and you’ll immediately look over to the cats’ scratching post. “Where’s Sophie?” will set you crawling to pick up Sophie the Giraffe and when we sing the Spanish song that Miss Francesca sings to you all the time you will pat your head when we say “cabeza” and pat your ear when we say “oreja”. Another Spanish song that Miss Francesca sings to you has a line that says “Si, si, si, no, no, no” and she nods her head yes for the “si, si, si” part and shakes her head no for the “no, no, no” part...and you love to shake your head to the “no, no, no”. It’s way cute, lovey dovie. This age is so fun, and we clap and cheer and celebrate all of these achievements with you!

In addition to all of this good word association, we are also starting to make sense of some of your babble! You’ve been saying mama for a while now, but other new words this month are papa, kitty cat (kee ka) and bad (a-baa).

You are also getting closer and closer to standing on your own (without holding on to anything) and to walking! There were a few times during your eleventh month, when you were totally distracted, that you let go and stood on your own for a few seconds and you even took a few unassisted steps! Most of the time you are more interested in crawling than standing or walking, since you are such an expert crawler, and that’s just fine with us. We’re in no rush for you to grow up too fast. Everything in time, my love.

We unofficially think you weigh about 22.5 pounds at eleven months old. You are long and lean and wearing 18 month clothes for the length. Baby clothes are so inconsistent – you can wear 12 month, 18-24 month or 2T shirts and they all look pretty good on you (although the 12 month ones are starting to get a little snug).

As always, here is a link to your continuing Flickr album. 396 pictures in eleven months, and that doesn’t even count the hundreds and hundreds (over a thousand, actually) that I’ve taken with my iPhone!

Kisses, kisses, KISSES!! (that’s something I love to say to you while we’re playing)